Shevardnadze toppled

last updated 8 January 2015

Tbilisi, Georgia

Georgians forced their president to resign this week, in a bloodless revolution led by a U.S.-trained lawyer. With tens of thousands of protesters cheering outside, opposition leader Mikhail Shaakashvili led an occupation of the Parliament building, refusing to allow the deputies elected in last month’s rigged vote to take office. After a few days of defiance, Eduard Shevardnadze stepped down, reviled at home for alleged corruption. “I have never betrayed my country,” said Shevardnadze, the former Soviet foreign minister praised in the West for avoiding bloodshed when the Berlin Wall fell. “It is better that the president resign.” Parliament speaker Nino Burdzhanadze, who took over as acting president, thanked the police for not using force against demonstrators and said new elections would be held in January.